The genius behind India’s first 3D printer is a 15-year-old high school dropout

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Angad Daryani built his first robot at age eight. By 13, he was building his own versions of the open-source RepRap 3D printer. Now 15, he’s working on “SharkBot,” a modified version of the RepRap which he’ll sell to other “makers” in India, making it India’s first home-grown 3D printer. With teenage bravado, he told DNA India that it will be “the fastest and most robust desktop 3D printer that can print any material except metal.” One of his prototype 3D printers is being used at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai.

Naturally, Daryani doesn’t have time for school. In an age when he can teach himself how to build a remote-controlled hovercraft by watching YouTube videos, what’s the point of formal instruction? From one of his online bios, here’s what Daryani, who is technically home-schooled, says about education:

I am a school student, but i admit , 90% of my learning happens outside the classroom. My second school is the internet! I gained soo much knowledge from the internet and that has helped to reach this stage of being a maker, in my life!

Daryani open-sources all of his designs so that others can copy and build on them. His TED talk isn’t online yet, but you can read more about him at the home of TED’s Mumbai meeting or on his blog, where he declares that “Computer Programming should be compulsorily incorporated into primary education just as literature is!”